Public Education in Chile

By Paulina Montenegro C.

The institutions don’t think about the importance of educating but about the price, the cost of every kid in the classroom. The people who manage Education are unfortunately economists, politicians (people who do not have a degree in education). However, the current Minister is a woman with many studies in the area. She is the face of the educational institution. But many of those people have not entered a classroom to teach for a long time (and some have never done). Public schools, specially the pupils, suffer from a malfunction of the educational system. There are too many students in the classroom, and that may cause misunderstandings between the teacher and the pupils. Not all the children pay attention. The teacher usually tends to speak up. The number of children in the classroom ranges from 38 to 43. I think, another problem is the schedule. Children wake up very early in the morning around six or seven o’clock, depending on the distance between the school and the house.
Parents need more information about the education that their children are receiving from the school. They need to be involved in every stage of their children’s education. I think not all the parents know that their children can receive free education. I have seen one kid in my little town that doesn’t go to school. This is sad and unfair. Finally, we know every child is entitled to a free and compulsory education. I think in these points the institutions should pay more attention. This way Public Education could be better, don’t you think so?